Sam R. Hall: Gunn banking lots of political capital

7:23 PM,
Feb. 22, 2014

Written by

House Speaker Philip Gunn is shrewdly building a political base throughout the state with his support of legislation that historically has not enjoyed GOP backing.

Gunn came out early in support of a teacher pay raise. His initial announcement was met with strong skepticism from both Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, both of whom said they supported the expansion of a merit pay system over an across-the-board pay raise.

Gunn, however, did not back down. Instead, he doubled-down, saying that while he supported merit pay, he believed teachers were long past due a pay raise that would ...